Smooth onboarding! Great employee portal! What about Job-Seekers?

Too often, we are worried about the experience of our customers as users of our systems and want to give them the best experience and resolve any pain points they have. Take, for instance, the convenience of jumping to the section from where they left on an application. We also, sometimes, think about how our employees feel and develop management systems to meet their needs. We are also concerned with making our onboarding systems successful for a smooth entry of an employee.

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Take a step back and think about the stage when they are only applying for a job in your organization. Chances are that you would be asking them to share their CV and their LinkedIn profile. Chances are also that you will have a form for them to fill in the details. You might also ask them to create a login on your portal to keep track of their applications. Now, think of doing it all and this is how their journey would look –

1.?????? A job-seeker finds an opening listed on LinkedIn job board which can be applied to through an external portal

2.?????? An option is given to apply through LinkedIn and the job-seeker feels this is convenient as the LinkedIn profile has all details already fed so he chooses the option

3.?????? Your portal picks up basic details like name and email ID from LinkedIn and then displays a form to ask the person to upload a CV.

The job-seeker thinks, the CV is already there on LinkedIn and even the profile has all the details. Still, since he is interested in the job, uploads the CV.

4.?????? After the CV is uploaded, you ask for a cover letter and give an area to type that.

I already have a cover letter prepared earlier. I wish I had an option to upload it but now I have to copy and paste it. But wait, I am using a mobile device so switching windows would be difficult. Let me switch to the web app on my laptop. But this would mean that the application had to be started from scratch again so he decides to go without the covering letter thinking that it can be added later.

5.?????? The CV is done and submitted. Another window pops up asking for experience and education.

Isn’t that what I already gave in my CV and on LinkedIn? Why do I have to do it again? Frustrated yet desperate to apply, the guy fills in all the details thinking that he would not have to redo after this.

6.?????? All details are filled but when the submit button is clicked, the form throws errors

What? But I filled everything. Turns out, he used auto-fill so the mobile number got updated with a zero at the start which was not allowed as the text box has the validation for only 10 digits. The address appears wrong because that field also has constraints of not just length but also of not using symbols. He deletes punctuations and shortens the address field, deletes the zero from the mobile number.

7.?????? Submit again and an error thrown again, “The re-captcha is wrong” Of course, he has to enter again since the form values are changed so the captcha image is refreshed

Several attempts and at last, after an hour of struggle, the job-seeker manages to fill the form and submit the application.

8.?????? He gets a confirmation email that the application is submitted. Waits for a few days but received no response beyond it.

9.?????? One day, he finds another similar opening in your company and wants to apply. Perhaps the last opening got filled so he was not called, he wonders. And goes for another process. He thinks that since he has already filled out the application earlier, this time would be easier as the portal will have his data so he clicks apply again.

10.?? The system asks if he wants to apply through LinkedIn, he selects that and the thing repeats. The system also then prompts if he wants to reuse the earlier application. The happy job-seeker gladly takes the option.

11.?? CV is asked again, and uploaded, this time, he is ready with the cover letter to paste and he does so, and then, comes the next window – education and experience.

What? This was already filled earlier. Haven’t I clicked to reuse the application? The frustration mounts and he wonders, does the company really care about people?

The result is either a drop-out of the form or another journey of frustration. When I am the application, my choice is mostly – Drop-out, unless I am really looking forward to the profile listed. For an organization to get qualified candidates with this process of application needs some really desperate souls of job-seekers to have patience and keep applying.

I remember the same level of patience was needed when we filled out college applications and as we did not have much choice a decade or two back, we did it anyway. But today, the technology has advanced and user interfaces can be simplified and yet, why would a company take so much effort and make investments in processes when the person has not even joined the organization? You might think, I would like to put my investment in only those processes that show me results -

Employees benefits can get me productivity.

Customer care will get me business.

Onboarding will get me retention.

What will it get me if I improve the job application process for my organization?

The fact remains that if your job posting has an easy apply option, any job-seeker even a bit interested in the opening will apply. This means you will get far more applications than you can when you pull them to your company job portal. Never mind, if your enterprise is big and impressive enough, the job-seeker will gladly go to your web portal to apply. However, at that point, the job-seeker will expect the same level of professionalism and convenience on your board as provided on a job board. Fail that, and you will have a potential employee who starts the journey with frustration.

Their frustration of course gives you convenience as you get all the data you need to qualify a candidate but will that also not add a risk of losing some good candidates who would not be happy to go through the trouble and would rather go to your competitors as they have smoother hiring systems?

The point remains – do you think it is important to create a good experience for not just an employee but a job-seeker who could be your future employee?

The question needs to be answered within your mind and a decision to do something about it is completely yours.

#jobseeker #learninganddevelopment #writerpoojadubey #globalwritersacademy #HR

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